Saturday I busted my butt getting the roof on the kids' tree house. Sunday I had a hard time moving, not rolling out of bed 'till about 8:00. My daughter wanted to go hunting & her little brother was at a sleep over. I figured our best chance for success with such a late start was to go after antelope. I fixed up a breakfast & gathered up gear. We rolled out just after 10:00 & arrived at the block management ranch we were going to hunt after a little after 11:00.
A funny thing happened on the way to the antelope fields. We spotted an orphan elk calf running around out there. Nine cows had been shot under the pivots earlier in the week. We pulled a little sneak up a shallow gulley to where I thought we'd be close. I knelt down to strip off some excess gear while my daughter stood guard. She saw him coming & ducked. I whispered to her to get ready. She set up her bipod and went prone. I was about 20 feet away, but when she pulled back the hammer without my coaching I knew we were in for some action.
When the critter came into view I gave a bleat on the cow call that froze him broadside.
"Bang Flop" were the first words out of my mouth!
I had ranged him at 156 yards before blowing the cow call & knew it should be a chip shot for her. It was an uphill shot and the 140gr Partition entered a little high, taking out both lungs and nicking the under side of the spine. I think nerves played a big part in where the shot went.
Missing the heart wasn’t all bad. At the beginning of the school year her science teacher asked the hunters in the class to save their hearts for dissection later in the year so I packed that out too.
Fortunately for me it was a small elk and I only had to drag it half a mile before the rancher drove out and hauled us the rest of the way back. We both had $h!# eatin’ grins on our faces all the way home. No way were we supposed to get an elk that day.
While we were skinning it out, a family friend came over and presented her with a new Ka-Bar skinner which was put right to work.
This was her first harvest and needless to say, I’m pleased and proud.
